This is what happens when you have a good sexual relationship at home. When two people are still on fire for each other, and that takes work, even using the authority of the Church to give yourself permission to say 'this is a good reason' to refrain from relations on this week, sometimes the Author of Life has other plans.

Was she supposed to responsibly abort her baby?

Is she and her husband supposed to go out and find a same-sex partner so her Pope won't judge her and will go out of his way to find good in the sex they are having?

He wouldn't dare tell the communist Castro he is tempting God.

He wouldn't dare tell the nuns on the bus, who led generations of children into temptation and gehanna, they are tempting God.

Out of his long list of insults to faithful Catholics, I think this is the worst.

Forget about his vulgar caricature of conjugal love as a mindless sex of rabbits and the theological problems he continues to foster, where is his faith in God through Whom all things are possible?

Where is his trust?

Where is his surrender?

Even if a mother dies rather than kill or intercept a life given to her by God, that is our fiat. We don't balance consequences and then obstruct the Creator of Life.

If God creates, we trust and love Him enough to say yes.

What good was accomplished by making her feel shame for doing what the Church has taught for 2000 years?

This Pope is completely mis-represented in the secular media and consequently in lots of the faithful Catholic media so gullible and fearful. I notice you have a prayer to St Catherine of Siena on your blog. Will you consider her words: “Mystical Body of Holy Church,” pages 216-220."And if you should ask me why I said that this sin of those who persecute holy Church is grave than any other sin, and why it is my will that the sins of the clergy should not lessen your reverence for them, this is how I would answer you: Because the reverence you pay to them is not actually paid to them, but to me, in virtue of the blood I have entrusted to their ministry.

So the reverence belongs not to the ministers, but to me … and just as the reverence is done to me, so also is the irreverence, for I have already told you that you must not reverence them for themselves but for the authority I have entrusted to them.

For this reason, no one has excuse to say, “I am doing no harm, nor am I rebelling against holy Church. I am simply acting against the sins of evil pastors.” Such persons are deluded, blinded as they are by their own selfishness. To me redounds every assault they make on my ministers: derision, slander, disgrace, abuse. Whatever is done to them I count as done to me. For I have said, and I say it again: No one is to touch my christs. It is my right to punish them, and no one else’s.

Therefore, I will tell you, if all the other sins these people have committed were put on one side and the one sin on the other, this one would weigh more in my sight than all the others. I have shown you this so that you would have more reason to grieve that I am offended and these wretched souls damned, so that the bitter sorrow of you and my other servants, by my kind mercy, might dissolve the great darkness that has come over these rotten members who are cut off from the mystic body of holy Church.

O dearest daughter, grieve without measure at the sight of such wretched blindness in those who have been washed in the blood, and have been nourished with this blood at the breast of holy Church! Now like rebels they have pulled away from that breast out of fear and under the pretext of correcting the faults of my ministers -- something I have forbidden them to do, for I do not want my anointed ones touched by them. What terror should come over you and my other servants when you hear any mention of that wretched chain of theirs! Your tongue could never describe how hateful it is to me!"

It is true Pope Francis is sometimes misrepresented, but even if you are unable to piece together thousands of statements from his own mouth, the lack of Church teaching for two years and his antics at the Synod are clear enough to tell me you are not acting in good faith when you accuse faithful Catholics of being gullible and fearful.

Further, I am not obligated to follow anyone elses personal prayers, even if that person is a Saint. The prayer contradicts Canon Law which should be enough to tell you Christ does not despise and forbid exposing errors of ordained men.

It is presumptuous for you to give advice based upon your delusion I am not seeking the advice of Christ in prayer and following his lead to say what needs to be said to preserve the deposit of faith for my children and their children.

I have read all the customary explanations written by various Catholics found on blogs and sites that link to general Catholic opinion that the Pope didn't really mean what he said when he cautioned us not to "breed like rabbits". But the well-meaning Catholics fail to understand this: he did say it. The damage done, which is very severe, is done.

My good wife and I brought a large family into the world. Every time I brought her home from the hospital with a new child neighbors would roll their eyes. One thoughtfully told one of our children to ask us if we had ever heard of the Pill. Those who have had large families know the drill: the annoyed stares at a restaurant as we sat down to a large table, the ungentlemanly sneers received from friends and fellow workers, etc.

Once one of our helpful neighbors left a condom on our front porch (a used one, I am sorry to say) to give us, I suppose, his Important Message to us.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard references from associates about "breeding like rabbits" I would be rich beyond the dreams of Midas. One expects to hear that from average people...but must we hear it from the Pope, too?

Well, why not. For years Catholic "marriage classes" , which are now required (!) before a diocesan priest can marry you do nothing but teach you how to not have children, the "Catholic way", of course. But the net result is the same: few or no kids.

I suppose "be fruitful and multiply" or "bring more souls into the world to give glory to God" are Jurassic ideas that have gone the way of the dodo.

Some Catholic writers are pointing to Pope Pius XII's words on large families, which were laudable and are much needed now. Alas, when push came to shove Pius did not build upon those noble words and when asked once by a interviewer what he meant by a "large" family, he famously said, "about four". I relate these things to you now because someone is going to throw that in your face when you bring up Pius' words. I say this not to denigrate him but only to point out that he was not immune from some very fuzzy thinking at times. And I am not of course referring to that preposterous nonsense that he was somehow "indifferent" to suffering Jews. [I once asked my mother why there were only four children in our family, a cheeky and untactful question, I know. Her answer was "because that is what Pope Pius thought would be enough and she, like a good Catholic, obeyed him.]

Pius himself came from a family of four so perhaps that had something to do with his unfortunate remark.

In view of Pope Francis' words, which will have the same effect as Pius XII's only perhaps worse, I should sit down with my wife and see which of our children we should eliminate.

Large families mean that you will have to do with less, yes. A smaller house, a mother at home with her children and not earning a second income while the Father brings home the bacon, fewer vacations, a lesser car than we would want, fewer Christmas presents for the little ones, foregoing that speedboat we have our eye on, no hideaway in the woods come Summer time, more ground chuck and less sirloin. We may look at this and lament, understandably. But look at what we have gained in return.

When I shuffle off this mortal coil it is comforting to know that there will be many children there praying for me. How much better than dying alone and forgotten.

I suppose we can excuse Pope Francis his colloquialism or misspeaking or whatever it is this time. The lady with seven kids should have been blessed, complimented and held up as most ideal Catholic mother. People like her are the martyrs of modern times.We need to reverence people like her.

Does he realize that NFP is not 100% effective?What bothers me more than anything is that he brought up the woman, but said nothing about the man who fathered the baby. As if, her desire to have a child made it spontaneously blossom in her womb.I pray that she doesn't have people around her that think she shouldn't have so many kids. How many "I told you so" comments is she getting?

John Vennari at Catholic Family News blog, just did an excellent short video concerning the current situation and the latest papal insanity. Some thing is missing here...we have solid Catholics like yourself Carol ..among others who are actually doing the work of our prelates! Where are the priestly voices concerning this abberration....how long will they find excuses...how many souls have to be lost! at the TLMS I attend there are always families in attendance with eight or more children...what more must these solid Catholics have to take from this faithless pope!

This is my very first "public" response wherein I wish this pope would just stop the stupid "interview-in-back-of-the-plane" comments that give faithful Catholics *another* Scooby Doo moment where we say: "Rah-Roh, Raggy."

My wife and I were offended by his "breed like rabbits" comment. When we realized the beauty of the Church's (and, hence, Christ's) teaching on being open to life we had five more children after our first two (two of those last five are in heaven).

After third child was born (because we were *open* to the possibility of getting pregnant)the female doctor came out into the waiting room and asked me, "Kevin, I know of your Catholic beliefs. Your wife's uterus is paper thin. She *cannot* get pregnant again. It could cost her her life. While I have her opened up (C-section) I can tie her tubes."

To which I nervously replied, "We cannot do that. We can't!" (this was a secular hospital)

After this handsome young baby *blessed us*, we had two more - and miscarried two.

We *were* trying not to get pregnant with the last two. (yes, NFP) However, the *Lord* had other plans.

Our last two are boys. Our priest thinks one of them has a vocation to the priesthood. Our youngest "plays" priest at home and he cannot wait until he can serve at the Altar.

I hope and pray that Pope Francis would just *stop* with these silly, insipid (contemporary Jesuitical) comments and lead souls to heaven with *the Truth*.